Brown joins federal lawsuit challenging cuts to U.S. Department of Energy grant funding

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - Brown University has joined a federal lawsuit challenging an action announced on Friday, April 11, by the U.S. Department of Energy to limit indirect cost reimbursements to a 15% rate for the agency's research grants to higher education institutions.

Brown is a named plaintiff in the suit, filed on Monday, April 14, by the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and eight other universities, in Massachusetts federal district court. The court action is the latest in a series of legal efforts by the University to block federal actions to dramatically cut funding to critical research.

"We will continue to take the action necessary to protect the essential funding that supports Brown research and our country's need for innovative solutions to critical problems," Brown University President Christina H. Paxson said. "The Department of Energy has moved to reduce funding in areas that are key to the nation's current and future energy needs and security, as well as the technology and innovation required to maintain America's global leadership."

In a declaration filed as part of the joint lawsuit, Brown's Vice President for Research Greg Hirth explained that Brown receives funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) that supports cutting-edge, multi-year research projects across Brown's School of Engineering, Department of Physics, Department of Applied Mathematics, Department of Chemistry, and Department Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, including research that was just awarded the 2025 Breakthrough in Fundamental Physics Prize. Areas of DOE-funded research at Brown include artificial intelligence, quantum information science, and nuclear technology, all of which have been identified as critical priorities of the current federal administration.

"This reduction to the indirect cost rate and the termination of these critical grants will have devastating effects on Brown's research initiatives and the progression of science, not only for the University and for Rhode Island, but for the nation and its citizenry," Hirth wrote in the declaration. "Stopping or slowing DOE-funded research not only impedes work in specific fields, but also necessarily causes America to lose its global competitive edge in areas such as AI, microelectronics, advanced functional materials, and quantum science - today and in the future."

Hirth, a professor in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences who has been on the faculty at Brown since 2007, noted destructive impacts on innovative research that is advancing everything from medical imaging and fast-charging electronics, to security systems for banking and personal data. Indirect costs supported by federal grant agencies pay for the facilities, electricity and other essential infrastructure that helps to make research possible, as well as the systems for an institution's compliance with extensive federal regulations.

"Setting the overhead rate of sponsored grants and contracts to 15% would disrupt Brown's research initiatives, operating budgets, personnel, core infrastructure and communities," Hirth stated. "If the indirect cost reimbursement of Brown's DOE-sponsored grants and contracts had been reduced to 15%, the loss for Fiscal Year 2024 would have exceeded $2 million. We estimate the loss for Fiscal Year 2025 would be similar."

Hirth noted that overall, in the 2024 fiscal year, Brown's federally sponsored grants and contracts totaled $253.56 million, or 19% of Brown's operating revenue. Of that $253.56 million, $69.63 million was in the form of indirect costs. In the current 2025 fiscal year, Brown's operating budget projects $300 million in sponsored research, which represents 19% of the University's net revenue and anticipates $73 million in indirect costs.

"It has been suggested that Brown use its endowment to make up for these lost federal funds," Hirth wrote. "The endowment provides an essential source of support for the University's financial aid, faculty salaries, and academic and co-curricular programs and consists of over 3,800 unique funds that are legal contracts given as charitable gifts by alumni, parents, students, and friends of the University. These are restricted by law and purpose for their designated use, and cannot simply be reallocated."

Joint lawsuit is the latest in a series of Brown legal actions

Brown continues its persistence in partnering with its educational associations and other private and public institutions of higher education in advocating in court against federal actions that place research funding in jeopardy. On Feb. 10, Brown joined a federal lawsuit to halt the implementation of a 15% cap on the amount that institutions of higher education can recover in indirect costs from National Institutes of Health research grants. In a separate action on Feb. 7, Hirth submitted a declaration in support of a federal court filing by about two dozen state attorneys general seeking a preliminary injunction to ensure the continued flow of research funding from federal agencies.

In the April 14 lawsuit challenging the DOE funding cuts, Brown and the other plaintiffs describe the DOE cuts as a "flagrantly unlawful action…slashing 'indirect cost rates' for government-funded research that is a virtual carbon copy of the National Institutes of Health policy that a district court has permanently enjoined, after previously granting a prompt temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction."

"If DOE's policy is allowed to stand, it will devastate scientific research at America's universities and badly undermine our nation's enviable status as a global leader in scientific research and innovation," the filing states. It further asserts, "The pace of scientific discoveries in the national interest will be slowed. Progress on a safe and effective nuclear deterrent, novel energy sources, and cures for debilitating and life-threatening illness will be obstructed. America's rivals will celebrate, even as science and industry in the United States suffer."

In addition to Brown and the educational associations, the other public and private higher education institutions in the joint lawsuit against DOE are the California Institute of Technology, Cornell University, University of Illinois, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Princeton University and University of Rochester.